The Uttar Pradesh Police on Thursday arrested all eight accused in the alleged Ram Temple donation theft case, hours after registering the first FIR over the alleged misappropriation of donations offered by devotees at the Ayodhya temple. Sources told India Today the accused were being questioned, while arrest memos and other legal formalities were being completed.

The case was registered on the complaint of Krishna Mohan, a trustee of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, after recommendations in the preliminary report of the Special Investigation Team (SIT). The FIR names Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ramashankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava and Ram Shankar Yadav alias Tinnu, besides several unidentified persons.

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The accused have been booked under Sections 305, 306, 316(5), 317(4), 317(5), 61 and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with Section 13(1)(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The charges include theft, criminal breach of trust, receiving or concealing stolen property, criminal conspiracy, and acts committed in furtherance of a common intention.

The SIT was constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government on June 13 after the trust sought a probe into allegations of irregularities in the handling of donations and offerings made by devotees at the Ram Temple. The controversy drew political attention on June 7, when Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav cited reports alleging that crores of rupees in donations were missing and urged the courts to take cognisance.

Responding at the time, Vishva Hindu Parishad chief Alok Kumar accused the Samajwadi Party and the Congress of trying to gain political milage from the issue ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. After the FIR was registered, Akhilesh Yadav again questioned the investigation process in a post on X, alleging that under the BJP government, 'the small fish will be punished while the big fish will be spared'.

He also claimed that people were saying the SIT process may have been used to erase evidence before the FIR was filed and to decide 'which big fish to save and whom to implicate'. He further alleged that the SIT report appeared to have been prepared in advance and that the investigation was conducted to match predetermined conclusions.

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Krishna Mohan, the complainant, was inducted as a trustee on September 16, 2025, after the death of trustee Kameshwar Chaupal in February that year. A resident of Hardoi, he retired from the Indian Forest Service in 2012 and later took up social work.

Published on: Jun 26, 2026 10:10 AM IST